


A Little Idiosyncratic

by Mommy



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, do you love feeling broken hearted, hopefully gets better, i sure do, i think it gets better, lets all get sad, starts sad might get better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-03 23:14:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14006961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mommy/pseuds/Mommy
Summary: If he were anyone else, he might be a little more surprised.Unfortunately, he wasn't anyone else, and it would never be big news to Adrien that someone had a crush on him.Not even if that person was Marinette.





	A Little Idiosyncratic

Marinette had been making some progress, but for Alya and Nino, whose relationship budded literally overnight, the slow-burn had begun to kill them.  
Sure, she was no longer stumbling over herself in Adrien's midst, and sure they had engaged in a few conversations, but she was the runt of the litter, the last of the class to make friendly with Adrien. Her rate of progress might just get her on a date with Adrien of their own mutual accord - not the devisings and schemes of the two people's best friends - three-hundred years from now.

But they agreed, ultimately, that the big reveal had to happen between just those two. Just Adrien and Marinette. Alone.  
They could set the stage, they could push them together, and even if they were going to set the table for two for their two besties, they had to keep their filthy fingers out of the romance pie.

Another morning went by without success, with a failed conversation between Adrien and Marinette, and Nino posed the question to Alya about whether or not Marinette even truly wanted to end up in a relationship with him.

"Maybe it's not working out between her and Adrien because she doesn't want it to?"  
Alya scoffed, and Nino could practically hear her eyes rolling through the phone. _"Of course she wants it to happen! It's been like a year and she's tried on several occasions to even just send him a letter to profess her love. It's just his pretty face that throws her off and her own really-bad-luck."_  
"What went wrong with the letter?"  
_"We don't know! It might not have even been delivered, or Marinette didn't sign it, or maybe he just never read it - we waited for weeks to see if he would say anything, but no dice."_  
"Alright, new plan, then? How about we tape it. Marinette confesses to the camera, talks about her feelings, and instead of putting it through the mail, I can _personally_ deliver it to Adrien. That way we know he at least has it and that she didn't forget to say who she was."  
If Alya replied, Nino didn't hear it over a familiar voice from a familiar face poking into the little hide-away.  
"Confesses to the camera? Is she the one who stole my MP3?"

It was hard explaining himself out of the hole. He spent a full three minutes trying to come up with something else Marinette could have to apologize for - and as much as he tried, and as much as he was devoted to Alya, he could not, for the life of him, find a single reason why Marinette would need to confess or apologize aside from her feelings. Nothing.  
"Dude- I, uh. Can't say it, you really should talk to Marinette. It'd be better to hear it from her."  
Adrien's response was one of anxiety and fear, muted under skepticism. "Did I do something wrong? Is she mad at me again?" He paused, and apprehension was traded for exasperation. "... Was it Chloé?"  
Nino shook his head, thought, and sighed. "It's not for, like, a bad reason, bro. I promise. Just talk to her."  
Alya must have ended the call at some point, because when he picked it up next, it was disconnected. Even so, Alya gave him semi-approving nods throughout the day.

And talk to her Adrien did. Multiple times. Throughout the day.  
"She's not saying anything, what's going on?" Adrien asked, finally, anxious, curious, and once again tucked into the hide-away with Nino.  
After much deliberation and frustration, Nino settled his chin on his hands, acceptance washing over his face. "It's never gonna happen if you're the one startin' the conversation, 'nd Alya says Marinette gets tongue-tied every time she tries to say anything."  
"Nino, just tell me what it is so I can fix it? I don't want her to hate me forever."  
"Bro, she's not going to hate you forever." He dug his fingers through his hair, pushing his cap up a bit. He groaned. Looked around. And returned his eyes to Adrien before fixing his glasses in place and plucking off his hat to fiddle with the bill. "Alright, problem is - Marinette's going to love you forever and never say anything about it 'cause she's really shy."  
Adrien's concerned expression made way for a more thoughtful one. Maybe, like piecing together a puzzle. Maybe?  
"She's had a crush on you forever now and no matter how many times she tries to say it, it never gets to you. She says she even sent you a poem one year that never got answered and she doesn't know whether or not you even got it."  
Adrien furrowed his brows a little. "I don't know? I might have. I usually get a lot, so I don't always get to read them." At Nino's accusatory look, he brought up his hands in surrender. "I mean, it's been happening since I started modelling. I can't always read and answer every letter some complete stranger sends. But I didn't see Marinette's name on any of them."  
Nino sighed, rubbed his temples, returned his cap to his head. While he wanted to push the importance of these strangers' feelings - entirely because Marinette _had_ to be one of those strangers in the pile of unanswered letters - it was already past time for that. "O.K., bro, you got me there. But now you know, so - can you not tell Alya I was the one that said it? She wanted you two to be the only ones involved in figuring it out, so maybe just say you realized it at some point?"  
"Yeah. Sure." While Nino got up to head back to class, Adrien lingered.

The shift wasn't something Nino noticed at first, wasn't what he expected, but then again - what exactly did he expect? That Adrien would immediately march off and ask out the girl his friend had a thing for only a couple of months ago? Possibly.  
Maybe he also could have expected a bit more surprise or doubt from Adrien, but maybe that's why he stayed behind and came in late to class. Mulling it over, realizing it himself now that he had the big piece in the middle that made all the other shapes in the jigsaw look out of place. Thinking about how to approach Marinette and ask her out.  
But all Nino had to do was sit back and wait for his friend group to line up into perfect little duos for Alya's infinitely many double-date plans.  
Man, he was relieved.

* * *

If he were anyone else, he might be a little more surprised.  
Unfortunately, he wasn't anyone else, and it would never be big news to Adrien that someone had a crush on him.  
Not even if that person was Marinette.

Marinette, who hated him at first sight, with whom he had a hard-fought friendship after the past year.  
While she used to light up, face turning red at the sight of him, forcing herself to hold simple conversations with him, they had gotten to the point where she could at least talk to him.  
If all of Alya's pressing wasn't just to get Marinette and Adrien to work together to bury the hatchet that they had begun heaping soil onto that rainy day, it had to be pushing her to talk to him over the news he just received.  
Marinette had a crush on Adrien.

Nino and Alya had made a pretty big deal out of that, but after Adrien was given a full three seconds to put the facts to what he knew, he could resume as he was, and head back to class.  
When he came through the door, Nino looked expectant - he locked eyes with Adrien, smiled, nodded, and sort of flicked his eyes over towards the girls behind him. Alya looked the same, offering a simple smile. A nudge to Marinette, who visibly adjusted and greeted him with an eager wave and a big, wide grin that took up half of her face.

Adrien offered back a wave, and nothing else. He sat down next to Nino, who visibly transitioned from expectant to confused.

* * *

Nino couldn't conceive of any reason why someone who knew Marinette liked them - no matter her level of like, be it friendship or that of soulmates - didn't immediately run to her to profess the feeling as more than mutual.  
Marinette, the class president, every student's knight and emotional sounding board, one of the most amazing people in the school.

Maybe Nino was biased. In the past, he had a crush on Marinette, one that he had specifically even received coaching for to attempt to pursue.  
Sure, he was now dating her best friend and now had his eyes open to the single fault Marinette had - that her generosity and excessive compassion sometimes led to giving away the time and emotional labor of other people when the parties involved mattered to her - but Nino was steadfast in one thing: Marinette was wonderful, and any guy (anyone-- Alya had pushed the point that some girls might like Marinette too) would be lucky to be with her.

The world was already lucky enough just having her in it, but those she took favor with were the most fortunate.

Which is exactly the thought process swirling around in the boy's head while his best friend, Adrien Agreste, the absolute subject of Marinette's adoration and love, who had learned of Marinette's feelings only a few minutes prior, was behaving so casually towards Marinette.  
Marinette, who still didn't even know Adrien knew.  
Maybe it was some sort of tactic? Adrien was some kinda guru in romantic situations, as he demonstrated time and again, from his precise recollection of romantic tropes in anime (where did his interest even come from?) and his exact, compelling words that one fateful day when Nino screwed up confessing to Marinette.  
Marinette, one of the prettiest and kindest girls in school.

This wasn't something he was going to leave alone. For all the time he'd known her - the years before his spontaneous feelings for her manifest, and after - she'd never gone out with anyone, shown any real romantic interest in anyone.  
This was important.  
He wasn't leaving this to anime.

He passed over a note, attempting the same casual air Adrien had, but his muscles were impossibly stiff and he felt like a moody android.

_so whats the plan adriman? whatre u gonna do????_

Adrien raised an eyebrow at Nino, offering him a bit more of a side-glance than a real look. Nino stole back the paper, scrawled quickly over it, and shoved it back across the table before turning his eyes up to Mme. Bustier at the front.  
That lasted two seconds before he went back to looking expectantly at Adrien, who started writing just beneath his large letters " _about marinette!!!!_ "

_I didn't plan on doing anything. Why?_

Maybe his look was a little too incredulous, and his aggressive writing suspicious. The girls behind them seemed to be taking interest in the going-ons, meaning he had to write smaller letters. And turn over the paper so neither could read Marinette's name.

 _cuz she likes u dude dont u like her?_  
_Marinette is a friend._  
_shes cute how do u not like her_  
_I like her as a friend!!!!!_  
_dude think about it 4 a while_

Adrien huffed - making an expression Nino had scarcely really seen as he settled forward on his desk, furrowing his eyebrows a little, and managed to shed the look of a perfect angel. The perfect angel who could do no wrong and hurt no one's feelings.

An Adrien like that would break Marinette's heart. The very concept stung.

 _ok ok so ur the 1 guy in the world that doesnt wanna go out w/ marinette, just try 2 let her down easy ok._  
_Yeah. It's not like I was going to TRY to hurt her feelings._

Maybe he was a little sensitive. A little worried. But this was his ex-crush and someone he grew up with and the best friend of his girlfriend. The rock of the class. The girl who led everyone to safety when stuff went crazy and people were in danger.  
Why Adrien wasn't already making an effort to change his mind - why he even needed to change his mind instead of instantly being floored and thrilled by the news Marinette liked him - and take an interest in kind was beyond Nino.  
In retrospect, back when Nino had expressed an interest in Marinette, Adrien should have been just as smitten. She was amazing, but here he was, volunteering his time and energy and one-liners to hook Nino up with the baker's daughter.

There was just something about Marinette, something that, somehow, Adrien didn't get.

_so jw, is there somebody else u like?_

The shift in Adrien's posture, the hesitation, his new changing expressions - Nino couldn't make sense of them.  
The responses were even more enigmatic when Adrien didn't write anything, didn't say anything, just sort of shrugged - not at Nino, not at anyone, just _shrugged_ and he couldn't put meaning to it.  
He'd have to ask Alya for her insight later, along with breaking the bad news that the cat was out of the bag, that Adrien knew, and it didn't look like the information was going anywhere. Not yet, at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's put it to a vote; do we want this to turn into Nino/Marinette or Adrien/Marinette? I personally cannot decide.


End file.
